INDIANAPOLIS – Meyer Shank Racing moved closer to finalizing its 2024 IndyCar plans Friday but still remains uncertain of its future in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Tom Blomqvist, who has anchored Rolex 24 at Daytona victories the past two years for MSR, will move full time to IndyCar next season in a multiyear deal with the team. Blomqvist will take over the ride occupied since last year by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, who will become a minority owner of MSR and will enter the Indy 500 as the team’s third driver next year.
Team owner Mike Shank said Blomqvist and Castroneves also would drive in the team’s Rolex 24 entry – if there is one.
Shank said the team’s IMSA plans are “up in the air right now” and probably four to five weeks from being revealed.
“We’re doing everything we can to stay on,” he said.
ICYMI:
— Meyer Shank Racing (@MeyerShankRac) August 11, 2023
🏁 @tom_blomqvist to drive INDYCAR full-time starting '24
🏁 @h3lio set for Indy 500-only entry starting in 2024
🏁 Helio joins MSR ownership group as minority partner
🏁 Helio to serve as driver coach & team ambassador
Release: https://t.co/cb5R0zMkgT pic.twitter.com/OcU2nRbkwR
A three-time overall winner in the Rolex 24, Shank’s cars have competed in the sports car endurance classic at Daytona International Speedway for two decades in both the prototype and GT categories.
MSR rejoined the top division with Acura in 2021 and won both the Rolex 24 and season championship last year.
But a month after winning the 2023 season opener, the team received a hefty penalty for manipulating tire pressure data at Daytona, and its IMSA status with Honda Performance Development since has been uncertain.
HPD has confirmed two Grand Touring Prototype entries in 2024 for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport (which is expanding to add an ARX-06) but has been noncommittal about whether MSR will be in the fold.
When asked May 25 whether Acura will have three GTP entries next year, HPD president David Salters told NBC Sports that “I never discus publicly what we’re doing with teams, number of cars and contractual stuff because we just do that privately with our teams. Let’s see when we get there. I don’t want to speculate about what may or may not happen.”
Asked Friday by NBC Sports what the odds are of being in IMSA and the Rolex 24, Shank said he didn’t know.
“They float; it goes from 50-50 to 80% right now,” Shank said. “It’s coming down to the last minute, which I don’t like a lot. That’s the way it is right now.”
Despite losing 200 driver and team points from the Daytona penalty (along with a $50,000 fine and its race prize money), MSR has battled into championship contention.
Its No. 60 Acura ARX-06 won at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last month (a victory that Shank dedicated to critics who “said a lot of nasty things”), and co-drivers Blomqvist and Colin Braun are fifth in the standings with two races remaining.
Shank called the comeback “unbelievable” and noted their 118-point deficit was solely because of the penalty.
Does the team’s return depend on having a manufacturer?
“That’s a good question,” Shank said. “In my life, Jim and I yelled at each other over this for a while now. The team that Jim and I have created on that side has won everything, is extremely competitive, fought back from a 200-point deficit, has a chance at the championship again.
“In my mind, they’re at the pinnacle level of sports car racing. That’s where they deserve to be. You can imagine where I think we need to be.”
Though its IMSA deal is uncertain, Jim Meyer, who co-owns the team with Shank, said MSR is set to run two full-time Honda engines (plus the third for the Indy 500) with HPD support.
The drive for five continues in 2024! Let’s Goooooo! 🚀🚀🚀 pic.twitter.com/l8dPwGSxkB
— Helio Castroneves (@h3lio) August 11, 2023
In a release, MSR said the future of its second full-time IndyCar entry for 2024 was being finalized and would be announced soon. The No. 60 Dallara-Honda is being driven this weekend for the second consecutive race weekend by Linus Lundqvist in place of Simon Pagenaud.
Saturday’s race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course will be the fifth consecutive missed by Pagenaud since his July 1 practice crash because of a manufacturer brake failure at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
“Simon Pagenaud is progressing very well,” Shank said. “He’s going to do it on his schedule and the physicians that are looking after him. We regret certainly what happened at Mid-Ohio. He’s a great champion. We love him. When it’s time, it’s time. I don’t know when. It’s his body’s schedule right now. We’re not going to push any of that.”